Construction machine management apparatus and construction machines management system

ABSTRACT

Assessment information needed to calculate a used vehicle assessment value of a hydraulic excavator  10  is input to a portable telephone  20  and is then transmitted from the portable telephone  20 . The transmitted assessment information is received at a manufacturer&#39;s base station  40  at a remote location. The used vehicle assessment value of the hydraulic excavator  10  is calculated based upon the received assessment information, and history information and operation information on the hydraulic excavator  10  read out from an operation information database  43  and a history database  42  in correspondence to an ID number assigned to the hydraulic excavator which is included in the assessment information.

The disclosures of the following priority applications are hereinincorporated by reference:

Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-127123 filed Apr. 25, 2001

Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-127126 filed Apr. 25, 2001

Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-127127 filed Apr. 25, 2001

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a technology whereby various types ofmanagement of construction machines are carried out with a high degreeof efficiency through the use of communication terminals such asportable telephones.

BACKGROUND ART

The methods adopted in the related art to carry out various types ofmanagement for construction machines are explained below.

(1) Used Vehicle Assessment Management

When determining the assessed value of a used construction machine, thecurrent condition of the construction machine needs to be considered inaddition to the past maintenance history, the number of operating hoursand the like. In the related art, the condition of a constructionmachine is determined by a service person who travels to the work sitewith a specific assessment form (checklist) for the construction machineto be assessed and fills out the form with the results of the assessmentwith regard to the various check items. Then, he manually calculates theassessed value with a pocket calculator or the like by incorporating thehistory information and the operation information mentioned above intothe assessment results. However, a method that involves such manual workis not efficient.

(2) Inspection Information Management

When a construction machine such as a hydraulic excavator is inspectedin the related art, a service person visits the work site with aspecific inspection form (checklist), fills out the form with theresults of the inspection of various check items, takes the form back tothe office and enters the contents of the form into a specific databasefrom a terminal. This method requires the service person to fill out theform and then enter the contents into the database, and is notefficient. In addition, there is a problem with this method in that ifthe inspector is a service person dispatched by a rental company, theinspection information is not readily available to the manufacturer.

(3) Operation Information Management

There are monitoring systems in the related art (e.g., Japanese LaidOpen Patent Publication No. H 10-140616) achieved by providing a devicethat collects data related to the operating status of a work machinesuch as a construction machine or a dump truck at individual workmachines and allowing the data collected at the collection device to betransmitted to a remote base station through a means for communication.While such a system achieves an advantage in that the operating statusof each work machine can be accurately ascertained on the base stationside, the operation data cannot be checked or overwritten on the workmachine side.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a management method that makes itpossible to carry out various types of management of constructionmachines with a high degree of efficiency through the use ofcommunication terminals such as portable telephones.

In the method for construction machine assessment according to thepresent invention, information required to assess a construction machineinput to a portable telephone is transmitted to a base station at aremote location; the transmitted information is received by a server atthe base station; and a used vehicle assessment value with regard to thestation; and a used vehicle assessment value with regard to theconstruction machine is calculated by the server based upon the receivedinformation, and history information and operation information on theconstruction machine read out from a specific database in correspondenceto the received information, the history information includinginformation indicating the history of past repairs, part replacements,oil changes, regular inspections, accidents and overhauls andinformation indicating whether or not any optional parts such as anattachment have been purchased, the operation information includinginformation indicating the length of operating time, the lengths of timeengaging in excavating operation, traveling operation, swingingoperation and the like.

The construction machine assessment system according to the presentinvention comprises a portable telephone used to input and transmitassessment information that is required when assessing a constructionmachine; a reception device that receives the assessment informationtransmitted from the portable telephone; a database in which historyinformation and operation information on the construction machine arestored in correspondence to an identifier assigned to the constructionmachine; and an arithmetic unit that calculates a used vehicleassessment value of the construction machine based upon the receivedassessment information, and the history information and the operationinformation on the construction machine read out from the database incorrespondence to the identifier of the construction machine which isincluded in the assessment information, the history informationincluding information indicating the history of past repairs, partreplacements, oil changes, regular inspections, accidents and overhaulsand information indicating whether or not any optional parts such as anattachment have been purchased, the operation information includinginformation indicating the length of operating time, the lengths of timeengaging in excavating operation, traveling operation, swingingoperation and the like.

In the construction machine assessment system, it is desirable that thearithmetic unit start calculating the used vehicle assessment value inresponse to receiving the information from the portable telephone. Thearithmetic unit may transmit an assessment item checklist to theportable telephone upon judging that a used vehicle assessment formtransmission request has been issued from the portable telephone. Theportable telephone may include a display unit at which the transmittedchecklist is displayed.

In the construction machine inspection informationtransmission/reception method according to the present invention,specific inspection items are transmitted from a base station to aportable telephone, the specific inspection items transmitted from thebase station are received at the portable telephone, the specificinspection items are displayed at a display unit of the portabletelephone, the information of the inspection results with regard to theinspection items entered into the portable telephone are displayed atthe display unit of the portable telephone, the inspection informationhaving been entered is transmitted from the portable telephone, thetransmitted inspection information is received at a base station at aremote location, and the received information is recorded into adatabase as inspection information corresponding to the constructionmachine.

The construction machine inspection information transmission/receptionsystem according to the present invention comprises a base stationprovided at a remote location to construction machine and a portabletelephone which exchanges information between the base station and theportable telephone. In this system, the base station includes aninspection item transmission device that transmits inspection items tothe portable telephone upon judging that an inspection item transmissionrequest has been issued from the portable telephone. The portabletelephone includes a display unit for displaying the inspection itemstransmitted from the inspection item transmission device, an input unitfor entering information of the inspection results with regard to theconstruction machine, a transmission unit for transmitting theinspection information. The base station includes a reception devicethat receives the inspection information transmitted from thetransmission unit and a storage device that stores the inspectioninformation received at the reception device into a database incorrespondence to an identifier assigned to the construction machinewhich is included in the inspection information.

The portable telephone according to the present invention comprises aselection device that selects either a communication mode in whichcommunication is executed or a data input mode in which various types ofdata are input from a control device of a construction machine, a datainput device to which data are input from the control device of theconstruction machine in the data input mode and a display unit at whichthe data input through the data input device are displayed.

Alternatively, the portable telephone according to the present inventionmay comprise a selection device that selects either a communication modein which communication is executed or a data output mode in whichvarious types of data are output to a construction machine, and a dataoutput device that outputs various types of data to the constructionmachine in the data output mode.

It is desirable that the portable telephone according to the presentinvention include both the data input device and the data output device.

The portable telephone-compatible construction machine according to thepresent invention comprises a reception device that receives varioustypes of data from a portable telephone such as that described above, arecording unit that records operation information and the like withregard to the construction machine and an overwrite device thatoverwrites data inside the recording unit based upon the various typesof data having been received.

In the data transmission/reception method achieved by using a portabletelephone according to the present invention, various types of data aretaken into the portable telephone from a control device of aconstruction machine, the various types of data thus taken in aretransmitted to a base station from the portable telephone and thevarious types of data transmitted from the portable telephone arereceived at the base station.

In this data transmission/reception method, the data transmitted fromthe portable telephone and received at the base station may be processedat the base station, the processed data may be transmitted to theportable telephone that has transmitted the unprocessed data, theprocessed data transmitted from the base station may be received at theportable telephone and the received data may be displayed at a displayunit of the portable telephone.

The computer program product for a portable telephone according to thepresent invention contains a program that enables a computer in theportable telephone to execute a selection procedure to select either acommunication mode in which communication is executed or a data inputmode in which various types of data are input from a control device of aconstruction machine, a data input procedure to input data from thecontrol device of the construction machine in the data input mode and adisplay procedure to display the data input through the data inputprocedure.

The computer program product for a portable telephone according to thepresent invention may instead contain a program that enables thecomputer in the portable telephone to execute a selection procedure toselect either a communication mode in which communication is executed ora data output mode in which various types of data are output to aconstruction machine and a data output procedure to output data to theconstruction machine in the data output mode.

It is desirable that the computer program for a portable telephoneaccording to the present invention include both the data input procedureand the data output procedure. In such a case, one mode among thecommunication mode, the data input mode and the data output mode isselected through the selection procedure.

This computer program product may be a recording medium having theprogram recorded therein or a carrier wave on which the program isembodied as a data signal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the hydraulic excavator assessmentsystem achieved in an embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the control system of the hydraulicsexcavator;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the control system of the portabletelephone;

FIG. 4 presents a flowchart of the operating time measurement processingexecuted at the main control unit of the hydraulic excavator;

FIG. 5 presents a flowchart of the operation information transmissionprocessing executed at the communication control unit of the hydraulicexcavator;

FIG. 6 shows the sequence of the assessment procedures performed by theservice person;

FIGS. 7( a)–7(d) show examples of the items to be assessed by theservice person and the specific numbers of points to be deducted;

FIG. 8 presents a flowchart of the assessment value calculationprocessing executed at the center server of the construction machinemanufacturer;

FIGS. 9( a) and 9(b) show examples of the items to be assessed basedupon the history information and the specific numbers of points to bededucted (added on);

FIG. 10 schematically shows the configuration of the constructionmachine inspection information transmission/reception system achieved inan embodiment;

FIG. 11 shows the sequence of the procedures followed to inspect ahydraulic excavator, input the results of the inspection and transmitthe inspection results;

FIG. 12 presents a flowchart of an example of the inspection informationreception/storage processing executed at the center server of theconstruction machine manufacturer;

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the control systems of the hydraulicexcavator and the portable telephone;

FIG. 14 presents a flowchart of an example of the processing proceduresexecuted in conformance to the program in the portable telephone;

FIG. 15 presents a flowchart continuous from that presented in FIG. 14;and

FIG. 16 presents a display example of data transmitted from themanufacturer.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION First Embodiment

The first embodiment in which the present invention is adopted in a usedhydraulic excavator assessment is explained in reference to FIGS. 1–9.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a system according to the presentinvention. This system makes it possible to transmit operationinformation and the like detected at a hydraulic excavator 10 to aconstruction machine manufacturer (hereafter to be referred to simply asthe manufacturer) 40 via a communication satellite 80. In addition, itallows the results of a visual assessment of the hydraulic excavator 10conducted by a service person to be transmitted to the manufacturer 40from a portable telephone 20 via an on-line service provider 30. Thecurrent position of the hydraulic excavator can be detected with a GPSsatellite 100. The following is an explanation of the specificstructural features.

Hydraulic excavators 10 each comprise a main control unit 11, acommunication control unit 12 and a GPS control unit 16 as shown in FIG.2. The control unit 11, which is constituted with a CPU, a ROM, a RAMand other components such as an interface, executes programs forhydraulic excavator drive control processing, management processing ofvarious types of data and the like. A switch SW that detects the stateof an engine key input thereto and pressure sensors 13, 14 and 15 thatrespectively detect the excavating load, the swinging load and thetraveling load are connected to the control unit 11. The control unit 11obtains the operation information on the hydraulic excavator 10 basedupon the information input from the individual sensors and the switch.The operation information includes, for instance, the length of timeover which the engine of the construction machine has been engaged inoperation, the length of time over which the construction machine hasbeen engaged in excavation, the length of time over which theconstruction machine has been engaged in swinging operation and thelength of time over which the construction machine has been engaged intraveling operation.

The GPS control unit 16 receives radio waves from a plurality of GPSsatellites 100 and calculates position information indicating theposition of the corresponding hydraulic excavator 10. The positioninformation obtained through the arithmetic operation at the GPS controlunit 16 is then input to the control unit 11. The position informationobtained in this example may be geographic coordinate information.

The communication control unit 12, having a CPU, a ROM, a RAM and othercomponents such as an interface, executes a program for the managementprocessing of the various types of data and the like. The communicationcontrol unit 12 transmits the operation information and the positioninformation on the hydraulic excavator 10 at a predetermined time pointeach day. An ID number used as an identifier for identifying thehydraulic excavator is attached to the information transmitted at thistime. The transmitted information is sent to a specific managementserver via the communication satellite 80. In this embodiment, a mailserver 90 constitutes the management server. Then, the informationhaving been sent to the mail server 90 is further sent to themanufacturer 40 via a communication network 60.

At the manufacturer 40 which constitute a base station, a center server41, a history database 42 and an operation database 43 are installed,and the operation information sent from the mail server 90 is storedinto the operation database 43 via the center server 41. Mainly,information on the history of past repairs and past part replacementswith regard to the hydraulic excavator 10 is stored in the historydatabase 42. The various types of data are stored into the operationdatabase 43 and the history database 42 in correspondence to the IDs ofthe individual hydraulic excavators.

In the control block diagram of the portable telephone (portableinformation transceiver) 20 presented in FIG. 3, a transmission unit 22,a reception unit 23, an operation unit 24, a display unit 25 and amemory 26 are connected to a CPU 21. The transmission unit 22 and thereception unit 23 are information transmission/reception units engagedin operation when making phone calls or in an on-line service mode to bedetailed later. A plurality of operation keys 24 a such as numeric keysare provided at the operation unit 24, and various types of informationincluding telephone numbers can be entered by using these keys 24 a. Inaddition, commands such as data transmission/reception start commandsand individual mode selection commands can be entered via the operationunit 24. A liquid crystal display 25 a, for instance, is provided at thedisplay unit 25 and the various types of information can be displayed onthe display 25 a.

At the portable telephone 20, the on-line service mode as well as theregular telephone mode can be selected in the embodiment. The on-lineservice mode is selected to use on-line services for portable telephonesprovided by electric communication business operators and the like, andenables an Internet connection, mail transmission/reception and the likevia the on-line service provider 30 (see FIG. 1) and the communicationnetwork 60. In the embodiment, data are transmitted to the manufacturer40 by accessing the center server 41 of the manufacturer 40 and alsoinformation transmitted by the manufacturer 40 is received by accessingthe center server 41.

It is assumed that each service person dispatched by the manufacturer 40always carries the portable telephone 20 described above.

Now, a specific example of the used vehicle assessment processingexecuted in the system configured as described above is explained.

(1) Acquisition and Storage of the Operation Information

FIG. 4 shows the processing executed at the control unit 11 of eachhydraulic excavator 10. First, as the engine is started up, the enginestartup time point is stored into a memory 11A (step S1). Subsequently,as it is judged in step 2 based upon the state of the switch SW that theengine has stopped, the length of time over which the hydraulicexcavator has been engaged in operation is calculated by subtracting thestartup time point stored in memory from the engine stop time point(step S3). Then, the calculated length of operating time is added to theoperating time length for the day currently stored in memory, and thesum is stored into the memory 11A (step S4). It is to be noted that ifthe operating time length for the day has not yet been stored intomemory, the length of operating time calculated as described above isdirectly stored into memory. As a result, the length of total operatingtime for the entire day is ultimately stored into the memory 11A.

While an explanation has been given in reference to FIG. 4 on themeasurement of the operating time length, the lengths of time over whichthe hydraulic excavator has been engaged in excavating operation,traveling operation and swinging operation and the like are individuallymeasured as well. These time lengths can be obtained by implementingtimer count control based upon the outputs from the pressure sensors13–15, and the information thus obtained is stored into the memory 11A.

FIG. 5 shows the processing executed at the communication control unit12 of the hydraulic excavator 10. When it is judged that thepredetermined transmission time point has arrived (step S11), theoperation information described above is read out from the memory 11A(step S12), and the operation information thus read out is transmitted(step S13). At this time, the position information indicating theposition of the hydraulic excavator 10 calculated at the GPS controlunit 16 and the ID number used to identify the hydraulic excavator 10are also transmitted. It is assumed that the transmission is executeddaily late at night to transmit the entire information for the previousday.

The information transmitted from each hydraulic excavator 10 is sent tothe mail server 90 via the communication satellite 80 and is thentransferred to the center server 41 at the manufacturer 40 as explainedearlier. At the center server 41, the correct data storage area at theoperation database 43 is searched by using the transferred ID number asa key and the operation information is stored into the area. Thus, theoperation information on the hydraulic excavators 10 is accumulated andstored in correspondence to the individual hydraulic excavators at theoperation database 43. The position information is stored in a similarmanner in addition to the operation information.

(2) Transmission of Assessment Information by Service Personnel

A service person transmits the assessment information by following theprocedures shown in FIG. 6.

Procedure 1: Acquisition of Assessment Items

In order to assess a hydraulic excavator 10, a service person accessesthe center server 41 (a website) of the manufacturer 40 by selecting theon-line service mode for the portable telephone 20. Then, he enters apassword as necessary to call up a specific assessment item acquisitionscreen which is then displayed on the display 25 a. By performing aspecific operation on this screen, an assessment form (checklist) forthe hydraulic excavator 10 is downloaded into the memory 26 of theportable telephone 20. The assessment form thus received, which lists aplurality of assessment items in correspondence to the individual partsof the hydraulic excavator to be assessed, also includes sections wherethe assessment results are entered in correspondence to the individualassessment items.

The assessment items are mainly details that cannot be detected with thesensors, i.e., details that need to be visually inspected by the serviceperson (except for the length of engine operating time), such as scars,deformation and wear at the various parts, as shown in FIGS. 7( a)–7(d),for instance.

Procedure 2: Entry of the Assessment Results

The service person displays the received assessment form at the display25 a, and conducts an assessment in conformance to the criteriaindicated in FIGS. 7( a)–7(d) while checking the assessment items. Thesecriteria are clearly indicated in the assessment form. Then, hesequentially enters the assessment results (the number of points to bededucted) for the individual items by operating the keys 24 a providedat the operation unit 24. The information thus entered is displayed inthe corresponding assessment results entry sections on the display 25 a.

Procedure 3: Transmission of the Assessment Information

Once the assessment of all the items and the entry of the assessmentresults are completed, a transmission command is input through theoperation unit 24 and the assessment results corresponding to theindividual items are transmitted as assessment information. At thistime, the ID number which enables an identification of the assessedhydraulic excavator 10 is also transmitted.

It is to be noted that after obtaining the assessment form from thecenter server 41, the assessment operation and the entry operation maybe performed in an offline state and then the center server 41 may beaccessed again to transmit the assessment information. Alternatively,after obtaining the assessment form, the connection with the centerserver 41 may be maintained until the transmission of the assessmentinformation is completed. As a further alternative, the assessmentinformation transmission processing may be executed via e-mail.

(3) Calculation of Assessment Value

At the center server 41 of the manufacturer 40, the processing shown inFIG. 8 is executed to calculate the used vehicle assessment value. Thisprocessing is automatically executed by using dedicated software builtinto the center server 41 upon receiving the assessment information fromthe service person.

First, a decision is made as to whether or not assessment informationhas been received from a service person (step S21), and if it is judgedthat assessment information has been received, the received information(the assessment information and the ID number) is read (step S22).

In addition, the history database 42 is searched by using the receivedID number as a key and the history information corresponding to thehydraulic excavator 10 is read (step S23). The history informationincludes information indicating whether or not any optional parts suchas an attachment have been purchased in addition to informationindicating, for instance, the history of past repairs, partreplacements, oil changes, regular inspections, accidents and overhauls.Based upon this information, the numbers of points to be deducted oradded are determined. For instance, as shown in FIG. 9( a), additionalpoints are awarded if the hydraulic excavator 10 is equipped with anoptional part.

In addition, the operation information database 43 is searched in asimilar manner and the operation information corresponding to thehydraulic excavator 10 is read (step S24). As explained earlier, theoperation information indicate the length of operating time, the lengthsof time over which the hydraulic excavator 10 has been engaged inexcavating operation, traveling operation, swinging operation and thelike. For instance, the number of points to be deducted is determined inconformance to the length of time over which the hydraulic excavator 10has been engaged in operation, as shown in FIG. 7( a). A specific numberof points is deducted in conformance to the year in which the hydraulicexcavator 10 was manufactured (see FIG. 9( b)), as well.

Through the processing executed up to this point, the numbers of pointsto be deducted (the numbers of points to be added on) with respect toall the items that need to be assessed are ascertained. In step S25,these points are totaled and then in step S26, the total points are usedfor substitution in a specific computing equation to convert the numberof points to a monetary value (a value equivalent to the totalingresults). In addition, the standard price of the hydraulic excavator 10is read from a specific database (step S27) and the monetary valueobtained by adding the totaling results equivalent value described aboveto the standard price is calculated as the assessment value (step S28).The assessment value thus calculated is displayed at the monitor at thecenter server 41 together with the points calculated for the individualitems based upon which the assessment was made (step S29). Theinformation on display can be printed out as necessary.

The calculation of the used vehicle assessment value executed in theembodiment as described above is summarized below.

The results of the assessment on the hydraulic excavator 10 conducted bythe service person (the results of a visual assessment) are transmittedto the server 41 of the manufacturer 40 from the portable telephone 20.At the server 41, the used vehicle assessment value for the hydraulicexcavator 10 is automatically calculated based upon the receivedassessment information, and the history information and the operationinformation on the hydraulic excavator 10 read out from the databases 42and 43. This achieves a great improvement in the efficiency of theassessment process compared to the manual assessment value calculationin the related art and, at the same time, the onus placed on the servicepersonnel is reduced.

It is to be noted that the assessment value calculation processing shownin FIG. 8 only represents an example, and the assessment value may bedetermined through procedures different from those shown in FIG. 8. Inaddition, while a portable telephone is distinguished from a PHStelephone under normal circumstances, the term “portable telephone” asused in this description represents a concept that includes PHStelephones. In other words, the data exchange described above may beachieved by using PHS services. Furthermore, a mobile personal computermay be utilized in place of a portable telephone.

Second Embodiment

The second embodiment in which the present invention is adopted in ahydraulic excavator information transmission/reception system isexplained in reference to FIGS. 10–12. The same reference numerals areassigned to members identical to those in the system block diagrampresented in FIG. 1 and the following explanation focuses on thedifference from the system shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing the system configuration adoptedin the embodiment. In the embodiment, the results of an inspectionconducted on a hydraulic excavator 10 can be transmitted from theportable telephone 20 to the construction machine manufacturer(hereafter simply referred to as the manufacturer) 40 and a constructionmachine rental company 50 via an on-line service provider 30. At themanufacturer 40 and the rental company 50, servers 41, 51 and databases42, 52 for storing inspection information and the like are respectivelyinstalled. Hereafter, the server 41 at the manufacturer 40 is to bereferred to as a center server.

FIG. 11 shows the sequence of inspection information transmissionprocessing executed through the system described above.

Procedure 1: Acquisition of Inspection Items

In order to conduct an inspection of a hydraulic excavator 10, a serviceperson dispatched from the manufacturer 40 or the rental company 50accesses the center server 41 (a website) of the manufacturer 40 byselecting the on-line service mode for the portable telephone 20. Then,he enters a password as necessary to call up a specific inspection itemacquisition screen which is then displayed on the display 25 a. Byperforming a specific operation on this screen, an inspection form(checklist) for the hydraulic excavator 10 is received at the portabletelephone 20 and then downloaded into the memory 26. The inspectionform, which lists a plurality of inspection items in correspondence tothe individual parts of the hydraulic excavator to be inspected, alsoincludes sections where the inspection results are entered incorrespondence to the individual inspection items. The inspection itemsare mainly details that cannot be detected with the sensors (detailsthat need to be visually inspected by the service person) such as scars,damage to parts.

Procedure 2: Entry of the Inspection Results

The service person displays the received inspection form at the display25 a, and conducts an inspection while checking the inspection items.Then, he sequentially enters the inspection results for the individualitems. The results are entered by operating the keys 24 a provided atthe operation unit 24. The information thus entered is displayed in thecorresponding inspection results entry sections on the display 25 a.

Procedure 3: Transmission of the Inspection Information

Once the inspection of all the items and the entry of the inspectionresults are completed, a transmission command is input through theoperation unit 24 and the inspection results corresponding to theindividual items are transmitted as inspection information. At thistime, the ID number which enables an identification of the inspectedhydraulic excavator 10 is also transmitted.

It is to be noted that after obtaining the inspection form from thecenter server 41, the inspection operation and the entry operation maybe performed in an offline state and then the center server 41 may beaccessed again to transmit the inspection information. Alternatively,after obtaining the inspection form, the connection with the centerserver 41 may be maintained until the transmission of the inspectioninformation is completed. As a further alternative, the inspectioninformation transmission processing may be executed via e-mail.

The processing shown in FIG. 12 is executed at the center server 41 ofthe manufacturer 40. A decision is made as to whether or not anyinspection information from a service person has been received (stepS110), and if it is decided that inspection information has beenreceived, the received information (the inspection information and theID number) is taken in (step S120). Then, the information thus taken inis stored into the database 42 in correspondence to the ID number (stepS130).

In the system achieved in the second embodiment, the database 42 at themanufacturer 40 may be a shared database from which inspectioninformation related to machines owned by the rental company 50 isextracted by the rental company 50 whenever necessary to store into itsown database 52. In such a case, a rental ID number that will allowspecific construction machines to be identified as hydraulic excavatorsowned by the rental company 50 may be stored in the database 42 incorrespondence to the hydraulic excavator ID numbers. The center server41 may assume a structure that allows various types of data to betransmitted to the server 51 of the rental company 50 in response to adata acquisition request issued by the rental company 50 when the rentalcompany 50 enters a hydraulic excavator ID number together with therental ID number.

Alternatively, if inspection information is transmitted by a serviceperson dispatched by the rental company 50 by using a portable telephonewith built-in software similar to that in the portable telephone 20described earlier, the inspection information may also be transmitted tothe rental company 50 for which the service person works at the sametime as well as to the manufacturer 40. In such a case, the serviceperson should enter the rental ID number to indicate that the hydraulicexcavator is owned by the rental company 50. At the server 51 of therental company 50, the various types of data on the hydraulic excavatorare recorded in correspondence to the rental ID number.

It is to be noted that while both the rental ID number and the hydraulicexcavator ID number are entered in the explanation given above, the twotypes ID numbers are stored in correspondence to each other at thedatabase 42. Accordingly, the rental ID number assigned to the rentalcompany 50 alone may be entered when the rental company 50 issues a dataacquisition request to have the data concerning all the hydraulicexcavators corresponding to the rental ID number transmitted to theserver 51 of the rental company 50. In addition, service persons maytransmit inspection information simply by entering the hydraulicexcavator ID numbers alone.

The results of an inspection conducted on a hydraulic excavator 10 canbe transmitted to the manufacturer 40 speedily by following theprocedures described above, and thus, the need to perform thetime-consuming tasks of first entering the results in the inspectionform on a hard copy basis and then entering the details through aterminal as in the related art is eliminated to achieve an improvementin the efficiency of the inspection processing. In addition, since theinspection information is stored into the database at the manufacturer40 regardless of whether the inspection has been conducted by a serviceperson dispatched by the manufacturer 40 or the rental company 50, theproblem of inspection information resulting from an inspection conductedby a service person dispatched by the rental company 50 not beingreadily available to the manufacturer 40 is eliminated.

Third Embodiment

The third embodiment in which the present invention is adopted in ahydraulic excavator data input/output system is explained in referenceto FIGS. 13–16.

The system achieved in this embodiment allows data stored in a hydraulicexcavator 10 to be read out by using a portable telephone 20 and datarecorded at the hydraulic excavator 10 to be overwritten by using theportable telephone 20. In addition, by selecting the on-line servicemode explained in reference to the first embodiment, information can beexchanged between the portable telephone 20 and the center server 41(see FIG. 1) at the construction machine manufacturer 40 (see FIG. 1).The following is an explanation of the specific structural featuresadopted in the embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of the control systems of the hydraulicexcavator and the portable telephone. In the explanation, the samereference numerals are assigned to components identical to those shownin FIGS. 2 and 3.

A group of sensors 12 is connected to the control unit 11 mounted at thehydraulic excavator 10. The sensor group 12 includes, for instance,pressure sensors that detect the pump pressure and the pilot pressureand temperature sensors that detect the engine cooling water temperatureand the hydraulic operating fluid temperature. The control unit 11measures the lengths of time over which the hydraulic excavator 10 hasbeen engaged in excavating operation, traveling operation and swingingoperation, the length of time over which the engine has been engaged inoperation and the like by controlling timers (not shown) based upon thedetection outputs from the individual sensors, and also detects thepresence/absence of any abnormality at various parts. The detection dataare stored into the memory 11A within the control unit 11. In addition,a connection port 113 a used to achieve a cable connection with theportable telephone 20 is provided at an external input/output interface113 connected to the control unit 11.

The portable telephone 20 is basically identical to that illustrated inFIG. 3. It includes a CPU 21 to which a communication unit 122, a memory26, an operation unit 24 and a display unit 25 are connected. Whileoperation keys 24 a, which may be numeric keys, provided at theoperation unit 24 are used to enter telephone numbers under normalcircumstances, they are used to overwrite the data at the hydraulicexcavator 10 in a data input/output mode detailed later. While a liquidcrystal display 25 a provided at the display unit 25 is normally used todisplay dates, telephone numbers and the like, it is used to displaydata provided by the hydraulic excavator 10 or data provided by themanufacturer 40 in the data input/output mode. In addition, a connectionport 126 a used to achieve a cable connection with the hydraulicexcavator 10 is provided at an external input/output interface 126connected to the CPU 21.

One of the following three modes can be selected at the portabletelephone 20 in the embodiment.

(1) Normal telephone (communication) mode

(2) On-line service mode

(3) Data input/output mode

The telephone mode is selected to communicate with the manufacturer 40and other business contacts. The on-line service mode is selected to useportable telephone on-line services provided by an electriccommunication business operator or the like and enables an Internetconnection, electronic mail transmission/reception and the like via anon-line service provider and a general communication line. In theembodiment, data are transmitted to the base station, i.e., themanufacturer 40, by accessing the website operated by the manufacturer40 and information provided by the manufacturer is received by accessingthe website. The data input mode which is selected to exchange data withthe hydraulic excavator 10 is to be explained in detail later. Thesemodes are selected by operating the operation unit 24.

Now, in reference to the flowchart presented in FIGS. 14 and 15, aspecific example of the data transmission/reception processing isexplained. It is to be noted that this processing is realized bybuilding dedicated software into the portable telephone 20.

FIGS. 14 and 15 show the sequence of control implemented by the CPU 21of the portable telephone 20. It is assumed that the connection port 126a of the portable telephone 20 and the connection port 113 a of thehydraulic excavator 10 are connected with each other through a cable CBand that the various types of data explained earlier are already storedin the memory 11A of the hydraulic excavator 10.

In the sequence shown in FIG. 14, a decision is first made as to whichof the three modes explained above is currently set (step S210). If itis decided that the telephone mode is currently set, normal telephoneprocessing is executed (a detailed explanation is omitted). If it isdecided that the data input/output mode is currently set, the processingenters a standby state to wait for an operation at the operation unit24. If a data input operation is performed, the data (the lengths oftime over which the hydraulic excavator has been engaged in excavatingoperation, traveling operation and swinging operation, the length oftime over which the engine has been engaged in operation and the like)stored in the memory 11A of the hydraulic excavator 10 are taken intothe portable telephone 20 via the cable CB (step S230). The data thustaken in are stored into a memory 23 (step S240). The stored data arethen converted into a format that will allow the data to be displayedand the converted data are displayed at the liquid crystal display 25 aat the display unit 25 (step S250).

If, on the other hand, a data output operation is performed in the datainput/output mode, a signal corresponding to the operation istransmitted to the control unit 11 of the hydraulic excavator 10 and, inresponse, the control unit 11 overwrites the data in the memory 11A incorrespondence to the operation (step S260).

In more specific terms, the data are overwritten through the followingprocedure.

In the control unit 11, mounted at the hydraulic excavator 10 as shownin FIG. 13, a control program for implementing locus control for thefront unit of the hydraulic excavator, interference prevention controlfor preventing interference between the front unit and the operator'scab and the like, for instance, is stored. When executing such control,data related to the shapes of the boom, the arm, the bucket and the likemust be used in the arithmetic operation. Accordingly, the data relatedto such shapes are stored in the control unit 11. There are situationsin which the nature of the work that the hydraulic excavator 10 has toundertake necessitates the arm to be replaced with a longer arm or thebucket to be replaced with a wider bucket. When a part is replaced undersuch circumstances, the data on the shape of the corresponding frontmember stored in the control unit 11 must be overwritten. When it isdecided in step S220 in FIG. 14 that the output mode has been selected,the data to be overwritten are specifically read out from the controlunit 11. The data thus read out are displayed at the display unit 25 soas to enable an overwrite on the screen via the operation unit 24 andthen the updated data are stored back into the main control unit 11(step S260).

As described above, the data stored in the memory 11A of the hydraulicexcavator 10 can be taken into the portable telephone 20 and displayedat the portable telephone 20 in this embodiment. In addition, theoperation unit 24 at the portable telephone 20 can be used as a keyboardto overwrite the data in the memory 11A of the hydraulic excavator 10. Aplurality of numeric keys 24 a normally used in the telephone mode areprovided at the operation unit 24, and numeric data can be modifiedeasily by using these keys 24 a. It is to be noted that during a dataoverwrite the original data and the new data contents resulting from theoverwrite are sequentially displayed at the display unit 25 of theportable telephone 20

Since the data taken into the memory 26 of the portable telephone 20 areunprocessed raw data, their contents are not always visuallyintelligible. Accordingly, in order to display the data as more visuallycomprehensible information, the data should first be sent to anappropriate department where they can be processed and then theprocessed data should be sent back. The department that processes thedata may be, for instance, the manufacturer 40.

In order to transmit the data to the manufacturer 40, the on-lineservice mode should be selected at the portable telephone 20. In thiscase, the processing proceeds from step S210 to step S270 in FIG. 15,and as a data processing request operation is executed, the data in thememory 23 are transmitted from a communication unit 122 in step S20. Thetransmitted data are sent to the center server 41 at the manufacturer 40via the on-line service provider 30 and the communication network 60.

Upon receiving the data from the portable telephone 20, specific dataprocessing is executed on the data at the center server 41 of themanufacturer 40, and then the processed data are transmitted. Thetransmitted data a resent to the portable telephone 20 via the on-lineservice provider 30 and the communication network 60.

Upon receiving the data (the processed data) from the center server 41(step S290), the data are displayed at the liquid crystal screen 25 a ofthe portable telephone 20 (step S300). In this display, the data arepresented as a graph, for instance, as shown in FIG. 16 or they may bepresented in a table, i.e., in a more comprehensible format than the rawdata.

It is to be noted that instead of simply presenting the data in a morevisually comprehensible format, the data may be analyzed at the centerserver 41 and the results of the analysis may be provided to theportable telephone 20 for display. The data processing as referred to inthe claims represents a concept that includes such an analysis. Inaddition, when data are transmitted from the portable telephone 20 tothe manufacturer 40, a specific processing method may be indicated bythe portable telephone side, so that the manufacturer 40 (the centersever 41) processes the data through the specified processing method andsends back the processed data. Alternatively, instead of having the dataprocessed at the manufacturer 40, software, which enables dataprocessing, may be built into the portable telephone 20. Furthermore,software having a function of simply transmitting data to themanufacturer may be built into the portable telephone 20. In the lattercase, whenever the manufacturer 40 needs the data on a specifichydraulic excavator 10, for instance, the manufacturer 40 can have thedata transmitted by contacting the personnel on the work site to obtainthe data on the desired hydraulic excavator 10 promptly.

The data exchange between the portable telephone 20 and the control unit11 may be achieved through a wireless communication such as an infraredcommunication.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention may be adopted in an assessment method (system) oran inspection information transmission/reception method (system) inconjunction with construction machines (e.g., cranes) other thanhydraulic excavators. While various types of data on a hydraulicexcavator are taken in by using a portable telephone, the presentinvention may also be adopted when taking in various types of data onanother type of construction machine such as a crane.

1. A construction machine inspection information transmission/receptionmethod, wherein: a program is installed in a portable telephone, whichis capable of a telephone call, for receiving specific inspection itemstransmitted from a base station at the portable telephone, displayingthe specific inspection items at a display unit of the portabletelephone, displaying information of inspection results with regard tothe specific inspection items having been entered into the portabletelephone at the display unit of the portable telephone, andtransmitting the information of the inspection results having beenentered from the portable telephone; the specific inspection items aretransmitted from the base station to the portable telephone; thespecific inspection items transmitted from the base station are receivedat the portable telephone by executing the program in the portabletelephone; the specific inspection items are displayed at the displayunit of the portable telephone by executing the program in the portabletelephone, the specific inspection items identifying features of theconstruction machine to be inspected, and prompting an inspector toenter an inspection result into the portable telephone for each specificinspection item; the information of the inspection results with regardto the specific inspection items having been entered into the portabletelephone are displayed at the display unit of the portable telephone byexecuting the program in the portable telephone; the information of theinspection results having been entered is transmitted with an identifieridentifying the construction machine from the portable telephone byexecuting the program in the portable telephone; the transmittedinformation of the inspection results and the identifier of theconstruction machine is received at a base station at a remote location;the received information of the inspection results is recorded into adatabase as inspection information corresponding to the identifier ofthe construction machine; a sensor is provided in the constructionmachine; operation information is obtained based upon information outputfrom the sensor provided in the construction machine; the obtainedoperation information is transmitted to the base station; and thespecific inspection items are items that can not be detected by thesensor and are transmitted from the base station to the portabletelephone in response to an access from the portable telephone to thebase station.
 2. A construction machine inspection informationtransmission/reception system, comprising: a base station provided at aremote location to a construction machine; and a portable telephonecapable of a telephone call which exchanges information between the basestation and the portable telephone by executing a program installed inthe portable telephone, wherein: the base station includes an inspectionitem transmission device that transmits inspection items, eachinspection item identifying a feature of the construction machine thatis to be inspected, to the portable telephone upon judging that aninspection item transmission request has been issued from the portabletelephone; the portable telephone includes a display unit that displaysthe inspection items transmitted from the inspection item transmissiondevice to prompt an inspector to enter an inspection result for eachdisplayed inspection item, an input unit that is used to enter aninspection result for each inspection item with regard to theconstruction machine, and a transmission unit that transmits theinformation of the inspection results with an identifier identifying theconstruction machine; the base station includes a reception device thatreceives the information of the inspection results and the identifier ofthe construction machine transmitted from the transmission unit and astorage device that stores the information of the inspection resultsreceived at the reception device into a database in correspondence tothe identifier of the construction machine; the construction machinecomprises a sensor, a main control unit that obtains operationinformation based on information output from the sensor, and acommunication control unit that transmits the operation informationobtained by the main control unit to the base station; and the specificinspection items are items that can not be detected by the sensor.
 3. Aused construction machine assessment method, comprising: calculating, bya control device of a used construction machine, operation informationof the used construction machine based upon information output from asensor provided in the used construction machine, the operationinformation including information indicating a length of operating timeof the used construction machine; transmitting, by the control device ofthe used construction machine, the calculated operation information to aserver at a base station with an identifier identifying the usedconstruction machine; receiving, by the server at the base station, thetransmitted operation information and the identifier of the usedconstruction machine, and storing the received operation informationinto a database in correspondence to the identifier of the usedconstruction machine; storing further, by the server at the basestation, history information including information indicating history ofpast repairs, part replacements, oil changes, regular inspections,accidents or overhauls of the used construction machine, into thedatabase in correspondence to the identifier of the used constructionmachine; transmitting, by the server at the base station, an assessmentitem related to assessment information that can not be detected by thesensor provided in the used construction machine to a portabletelephone, upon judging that a used vehicle assessment form transmissionrequest has been issued from the portable telephone; receiving, by theportable telephone, the transmitted assessment item and displaying thereceived assessment item on a display screen so that the assessmentinformation can be input; transmitting, by the portable telephone, theassessment information having been input with the identifier of the usedconstruction machine to the server at the base station; receiving, bythe server at the base station, the assessment information and theidentifier of the used construction machine transmitted by the portabletelephone; calculating, by the server at the base station, a usedvehicle monetary value with regard to the used construction machinebased upon the received assessment information, and the historyinformation and the operation information read out from the database byusing the received identifier of the used construction machine as a key.4. A used construction machine assessment system comprising: a controldevice provided in a used construction machine; a portable telephone; aserver; and a database, wherein: the control device provided in the usedconstruction machine calculates operation information of the usedconstruction machine based upon information output from a sensorprovided in the used construction machine, and transmits the calculatedoperation information to the server with an identifier identifying theused construction machine, the operation information includinginformation indicating a length of operating time of the usedconstruction machine; the server receives the transmitted operationinformation and identifier of the used construction machine, stores thereceived operation information into the database in correspondence tothe identifier of the used construction machine, and transmits anassessment item related to assessment information that can not bedetected by the sensor provided in the used construction machine to aportable telephone upon judging that a used vehicle assessment formtransmission request has been issued from the portable telephone; theserver further stores history information including informationindicating history of past repairs, part replacements, oil changes,regular inspections, accidents or overhauls of the used constructionmachine, into the database in correspondence to the identifier of theused construction machine; the portable telephone receives thetransmitted assessment item, displays the received assessment item on adisplay screen so that the assessment information can be input, andtransmits the assessment information having been input with theidentifier of the used construction machine to the server; the serverreceives the assessment information and the identifier of the usedconstruction machine transmitted by the portable telephone, andcalculates a used vehicle monetary value with regard to the usedconstruction machine based upon the received assessment information, andhistory information and the operation information read out from thedatabase by using the received identifier of the used constructionmachine as a key.
 5. A used construction machine assessment systemaccording to claim 4, wherein: the arithmetic unit starts calculatingthe used vehicle monetary value in response to receiving the informationfrom the portable telephone.